


Acquiring Anniversaries

by MarvelousMenagerie (HiddenOne)



Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: After some miscommunication..., Alternate Universe - No Powers, Bucky Barnes Feels, M/M, Previous Bucky/OC, Romantic Fluff, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Weddings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-02
Updated: 2021-02-02
Packaged: 2021-03-18 00:13:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,979
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29109111
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HiddenOne/pseuds/MarvelousMenagerie
Summary: Exactly a year that Bucky was left at the altar, he has to attend his cousin's wedding. Fortunately having Tony at his side makes things better.And Bucky finds a few things to celebrate on this anniversary.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Tony Stark
Comments: 16
Kudos: 179
Collections: Winteriron Winter Stockings 2020





	Acquiring Anniversaries

**Author's Note:**

  * In response to a prompt by [betheflame](https://archiveofourown.org/users/betheflame/pseuds/betheflame) in the [winteriron_winter_stockings_2020](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/winteriron_winter_stockings_2020) collection. 



> Watch me try to cram a 30K rom-com into just under 3K whoops XD

“Your cousin is a bitch.”

Bucky almost coughed up his drink onto his sister, but managed to save himself from disaster. Becca would’ve gutted him if he’d messed up her dress. Or maybe not. She hadn’t been a fan of the floofy bridesmaids outfit and probably could’ve used the excuse for ditching it.

Becca had no qualms about laughing. “Not a fan?”

Tony pressed closer to Bucky, wincing in apology. Bucky guessed he hadn’t seen her, which was the whole point since Becca was hiding to take a break from dancing with the parade of interested groomsmen. Bucky was polishing off his older brother glare for backup. 

“She’s, well,” Tony hesitated, gaze flicking between Bucky and Becca, “no.”

His fist stifled Bucky’s laugh. “Nicest thing you’ve said all night,” he drawled. “But yeah, we know. She’s… self-absorbed.”

Tony snorted. “Self-obsessed is more like it. She made me tell her all about how great the ceremony was, and weren’t the flower choices so perfect for a fall wedding, and didn’t I think her venue choice was amazing. And she doesn’t even know who I am! Wait, that’s not an ego thing, I just mean -”

“It’s okay, we get it.” Becca sighed. “Family.”

“Exactly. Ugh,” Tony commiserated.

“At last someone feels my pain.” Becca placed a hand over her heart. “Imagine that but for the months of planning beforehand!”

Bucky winced in remembrance. Becca had tried to keep the worst from him, but there was only so much she could do with Candice on the bridezilla warpath. Every question about flower arrangements, every vent about checklists and seating orders, every panicked phone-call over music choices was a reminder of what could’ve been. What _had_ been, up until the day of the actual wedding and it’d all fallen apart.

A year to the day that Bucky should’ve been married, his husband attending this wedding at his side, and instead he’d gotten a broken heart and chosen as Candice’s go-to for wedding planning emergencies. He didn’t allow himself to blame Candice for the poor choice of date. The venue had an event cancel and she’d snatched up the opening. It’d been nothing but another layer of salt on the sting - not that she’d ever apologized or even acknowledged how awkward it’d be for him. 

He wasn’t that surprised. She was far from his favorite cousin. 

Bucky rolled his eyes, tucking his feelings away. “Yeah, yeah, complain, complain. Don’t get her started.”

At twenty-two, Becca should’ve been over the childish impulse to stick her tongue out at him. She wasn’t. He reached out to snatch but she slipped her tongue back into her mouth and then bared her teeth.

“This seems like one of those sibling things,” Tony said. “One of those sibling things that makes me glad I don’t have one.”

“You’re so lucky,” Becca said with a put-upon sigh. “Dealing with them is a trial.”

“You are that,” Bucky agreed, reaching out to flick her shoulder.

“Rude.”

“Dance with me,” Tony said. It took Bucky a moment to realize that Tony was talking to him and not Becca. “I swear I’m not terrible,” and he wasn’t, Bucky knew that was true, “and I think this music is going to be the best we get. Come on, let’s go,” and held out his hand.

Bucky took it without thinking, his feet turning to follow. He gave Becca a fraction of his attention. “Are you -?”

“I’ll find a new hiding spot.” Becca huffed but shot him a knowing grin, and she scurried away before Bucky could say anything different.

“Come on, I know you dance.” Tony tugged him to the dance floor, which had the full range of small kids doing twirling circles to the elderly couples swaying to their own beat. There was an open space farther inside that they slipped into, offering protection from those who sat back at the tables, watching and judging, and maybe Bucky would get lucky and Aunt Ingrid wouldn’t comment about how Bucky was dancing with another man so soon after his engagement fell apart.

Except if Bucky was lucky, his engagement wouldn’t have fallen apart.

“You can drop the smile now,” Tony murmured as he pulled Bucky in close.

Bucky blinked. “What?”

“Drop the smile, lean in close. No one is paying that much attention to us, no matter how gorgeous we are, I promise.” Tony’s smile quirked, but something about it didn’t sit right on his face. Bucky stared at it, trying to figure it out. “You don’t have to pretend with me. Isn’t that why you asked me to come?”

Bucky leaned in close, hiding his face in Tony’s hair. It wasn’t so he could drop the required smile - weddings were joyous occasions and nothing less was allowed - but because he didn’t know what his expression was. Is that the reason he’d brought Tony? He’d just hadn’t been able to face the idea of attending a wedding after the falling apart of his own unless Tony was there. Tony had been by his side since it happened, standing as one of his groomsmen until it became obvious to everyone that Brendan wasn’t walking down that aisle. Steve had been his best man, glued to his side with support and sympathy, but Tony was the distracting whirlwind that let Bucky forget and pretend that things were normal again. Tony was the one who let Bucky breathe.

With Tony at his side as rock and buffer, being here didn’t hurt so much. Otherwise he would’ve intentionally contracted a disease, any disease, to escape the pitying looks and the pointed remarks and the overall ambiance of wedlock if he didn’t have Tony.

It was less about not having to pretend to be okay with Tony then it was just _being okay_ with Tony.

“Though really I think you should be celebrating.”

“Celebrating,” Bucky repeated dryly. It covered his disappointment that he couldn’t follow Tony’s thought process, and he’d thought he’d gotten good at that. 

Tony squeezed his hand and waist. “You’re dancing with me, that’s always a cause for celebration.”

Bucky couldn’t help but laugh. He pulled Tony in tighter too, and they weren’t dancing so much as swaying but he thought he liked it just fine. Tony was good at that, making him comfortable even when Bucky usually worried about others staring. But right now, the only person Bucky was paying attention to was Tony. “I can celebrate that.”

“Good. Let’s call it day one, start of something new. We’ve never danced together before.”

“That can’t be true, we’ve -”

“Gone to places, sure, as a whole group thing. Been dancing in the same general area together. But not just, me and you. Like this.”

Bucky hummed, thinking back. Tony had the best memory by far, but sometimes it was colored by Tony wanting to be right. He couldn’t think of anything that would prove Tony wrong, though.

“Guess so,” Bucky had to agree.

“It’s nice. I mean, I think it’s nice, or could be nice. Nice-ish, I mean, for wedding-dancing-swaying.”

Bucky laughed again. If he didn’t know any better he’d say Tony was _nervous_.

“It’s nice,” Bucky agreed again. “Or, I think it’s nice,” he teased.

“Good, good.” They swayed more, and Bucky realized that Tony was leading and he was following. It was nice, and Bucky was so glad Tony had agreed to come to this wedding with him. Being alone would’ve - well, at least he wasn’t thinking about how Brendan should’ve been here, dancing with him.

Brendan was taller, and his brown hair didn’t have Tony’s curls, and he shouldn’t compare. It wasn’t the same as it could’ve been, as it was supposed to be a year ago, but it wasn’t a bad different either. 

It was nice, with Tony. 

“Not that a little swaying action is enough to trump the whole anniversary of dumping an asshole thing,” Tony said, “but I’ll keep trying. If you’d like that.”

The thought cut and his throat squeezed shut. He barely ground out the words, his hands clenching onto Tony’s. “Anything’s better than the anniversary of getting publicly dumped at the altar, yeah.”

“Best thing he did was show off how much of an asshole he was before you got married.” Tony’s response was quick and sharp. “Cause for celebration. You deserve - Bucky, you deserve the _world_ and he couldn’t even give you a heads up -”

“Don’t.” Bucky moved to pull away and break their dance, but Tony followed him step for step. “Stop.”

He’d let Steve curse out Brendan because it made him feel better. He’d come around to Natasha’s gentle lectures about just because a relationship failed didn’t mean that he was a failure. He’d listened to his sister expound on how marriage was an overrated milestone for their generation and there was too much pressure involved from all of society. And he’d searched his own heart until he realized he was more upset over failing so publicly with his relationship then he was over the ending of the relationship itself.

Didn’t mean he wasn’t going to hold a grudge against Brendan forever for not mentioning any second thoughts before Bucky was standing up at the altar waiting for him, though. Asshole.

But Tony - Bucky couldn’t hear this from Tony. Not when Tony telling Bucky deserved the world didn’t mean what Bucky wanted it to mean.

Tony didn’t care that he was shaking the box of Bucky’s feelings, clever words standing in for clever fingers as they picked the lock. “Look, okay, so my timing could be better. Placing, too. But damn it, you are the catch of a lifetime and he didn’t appreciate you enough. You’re smart, and this is coming from me. Book smart _and_ street smarts, what gives you the right? And hilarious, always dropping your pithy comments at the end and stealing the show. Heart-breaking gorgeous, don’t even get me started. You’re amazing, Bucky, and the only thing you should celebrate today is how amazing you are. Screw him and your wedding and _this_ wedding - weddings in general! They’re shit and you’re not.”

Tony’s voice had lifted in passion, and Bucky came to realize they were still on the dance floor, receiving scandalized expressions from the surrounding couples.

Bucky didn’t care, except for that he wanted to cry. Tony couldn’t be telling him this. Tony wasn’t allowed to say nice things and light his heart on fire and remind Bucky just what he’d spend the last decade trying to forget.

Fuck. How could Tony say all that not love him back? What had Bucky ever done to deserve this?

“Last I checked this wasn’t my wedding. No proposal, not even a real date. Think you got it wrong,” Bucky said, keeping his voice low. It kept their audience at bay, not able to hear, plus disguised how wrecked his throat was keeping his emotions in check.

“Nope. Genius, here. I’m not wrong.”

“You couldn’t figure out the toaster this morning and burnt half a loaf of bread.”

“Those were sacrificial tests because I was trying to _fix_ \- ”

“You couldn’t figure out the toaster.” Even with his heart in his throat, Bucky couldn’t keep the smile from his face. “You, self-proclaimed genius, were bested by something whose only job is to toast bread.”

Tony sniffed. “A completely inaccurate assessment of the situation.”

Bucky was going to love this man until the day he died, and he was going to make peace with that. Loving Tony was the easy part. It was the ache for Tony to love him back that was the killer.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” the MC broke into the music. “It’s time for the garter and bouquet toss! Can I get all the unmarried gents to the edge of the stage, please. Bride and groom, front and center!”

“We’re not doing this,” Bucky said, eyes wide, and tugged Tony off the dance floor. He kept going, knowing there were eyes following his trail _away_ from where he was supposed to be, and that might’ve been his mom calling his name, but he pulled Tony out of the ballroom and down a hallway and through a door until the chilled night air smacked him in the face.

“Sorry about that,” he said, reluctantly letting go of Tony’s hand. “I don’t trust what Candice might’ve arranged, or even Becca. She gets ideas.”

“Works for me.” Tony’s hands dug into his pockets, and his smile at Bucky at soft. “I don’t need a garter that’s been on your cousin’s leg all night.”

Bucky wrinkled his nose at that description. “Thanks for that image.”

“Thank tradition, I’m just telling it like it is. Bouquet toss isn’t so bad, though not sure what anyone needs with leftover wedding flowers.”

“The fantasy you’re the one getting married next, I guess,” Bucky said with a shrug. “Could be comforting.”

Tony’s mouth opened, lips curled in preparation for a scathing comment, but he bit it back. Bucky raised an eyebrow in question, but Tony looked away, shoulders hunched.

“Sure,” Tony agreed quietly.

“What?” Bucky pressed. “No way you think that.”

“What do I know.” Tony blew out a breath. “I can’t even have serious relationships.”

“That’s not -”

“Can’t even get close to a proposal,” Tony said. “Never even crossed anyone’s mind, I’m sure. Certainly not mine. Lucky for dates to last a month let alone a lifetime. I know the whole getting left at the altar thing was awful but at least you made it there, you know?”

“It’s not a competition,” Bucky said through numb lips. He didn’t like the look on Tony’s face, and even if the people Tony tended to date didn’t quite know what they were getting into and shied away when the layer of Stark pulled back to reveal _Tony,_ that didn’t mean Tony was allowed to look like that. “Besides, what are Rhodes and Pepper and me and Steve and Nat and all of us but serious relationships? Friends, sure, but it’s not that different.”

Tony laughed but it didn’t sound humored. “Different enough.”

“If you get to tell me that I can’t mope on the anniversary that I got left at the altar when I’m _at a wedding,_ then I get to tell you that you don’t date the right kind of people,” Bucky said hotly.

Tony’s reply was snide. “Well maybe I missed my chance with the ‘right people’ and this is what I have, okay?”

“Bullshit,” Bucky fired back.

“It’s not bullshit, it’s -” Tony sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Whatever. It’s done, I guess. Let’s go back inside and get a drink or six. Even if the person your cousin married is a total bozo, he had to have managed to find the garter by now.”

Bucky grabbed Tony’s arm before he even thought about it. “Who did you miss your chance with?” Tony was always too literal - unless he was losing everyone and himself in a convoluted metaphor. If Tony talked about missing chances then he thought he’d missed his chance. He didn’t want to know, his stomach already sinking, but he thought he knew Tony. That Tony would’ve told him about the one who got away.

And Bucky couldn’t deny himself the torture of knowing. Of comparing. Of wondering.

Tony didn’t shake out of Bucky’s hold. He only winced and turned away as much as he could. “Don’t ask me that.”

Because Tony never refused him anything, and Bucky treasured that trust. “I’m asking.”

Tony sighed and shook his head. “It can’t be that much of a surprise that it’s you.”

Bucky lost his grip on Tony’s arm and reality entirely.

The smirk Tony shot him was sad. “Told you. Can’t not know it, but you had to ask.” He clapped his hands together and straightened his spine. “Okay, so, drinks? I think we deserve to clean your cousin out of alcohol after all this. Wow, weddings suck, am I right?”

“You can’t be serious,” Bucky whispered. “Me?”

“Do we have to hash this out? I know I’m a genius but you’re smart, you can figure out the details I’m sure, and we can just coast right over this and -”

“You’re a fucking moron.” Bucky didn’t know what he was saying anymore or how he was saying it. All his attention went to grabbing Tony and yanking, slamming them together. “Fucking hell you goddamn idiot.”

Tony was too small, cringing back, and Bucky knew he wasn’t helping but all he could do was lean down and press his forehead to Tony’s. “I’ve loved you for years. We’re both fucking stupid.”

“You,” Tony sputtered. “You were going to marry Brendan!”

“Well, yeah, never thought I’d ever manage to get a date with you.”

“I’m the one who thought those meet-ups for coffee or pizza were dates! But you said friends, and you did that with everyone, so I knew I was reading into things and you never meant anything that was just you being nice and -”

The age-old ache that Bucky had carried around with him for years cut fresh. He remembered wishing those were dates. And remembered joking about it to poke at the hurt, but of course clarifying they were just friends. Anything else would be too crazy right? 

His own stupid, idiotic fault, and he wanted to laugh and he wanted to cry but most of all -

“Can we kiss now?” It was a plea, more desperate than Bucky’s dignity liked but he didn’t have much of that left anyway.

“Not until you promise to date me. For real,” Tony said, his eyes bright and warm and so, so hopeful. “Romantically. All the romance. Kissing included. Give me a chance, that’s all I’m asking for.”

“Done.” Bucky’s heart had never felt so light he thought it could fly away. “No take backs.”

He tilted Tony’s face up and drowned in his kiss.


End file.
